Thursday, April 26, 2007

Moyers: Democracy has become a racket

"AMY GOODMAN: NAB, the National Association of Broadcasters, the consolidation of media, the advertisements -- in the last week the gabfest everywhere for the end of the money quarter, and talking about the politicians -- Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton -- who had raised tens of millions of dollars. What they don’t talk about is where it’s going. The majority is going to those people who are speaking on the networks, their bosses.

BILL MOYERS: It’s a racket. It’s a racket. Let’s just face it. Democracy has become a racket when it comes to money and politics and the media. Most of that money goes to the consultants, the advertisers, the people who make the ads. Then it goes to the people who broadcast the ads. And one of the reasons you don't get a lot of coverage on the local television stations today of local politics -- it’s abominable -- is because they want that money from the advertising. I mean, this is contempt. It’s contempt of democracy. It’s contempt of our freedoms. And the collusion between broadcasters and politicians who raise all this money to support the broadcast industry to pay for the advertising is a corrupting power. We cannot rightly claim to have a functioning democracy as long as money is sovereign the way it is. And the press is covering the story of their raising money, not what they’re saying, and the stations out there are waiting --

AMY GOODMAN: Covering up the story.

BILL MOYERS: Covering up the story, yeah. I mean, this -- I would like to be nice about it. I would like to be diplomatic about it. But the fact of the matter is there’s a cancer eating at the heart of democracy, and it’s money in politics. If free speech means you have to buy it, then only those who can afford it have free speech. And that’s contemptible."

3 comments:

911 occured on the first day of my retirement so I had the time to devote every day for the past 5 years to watching and investigating the insanity unfolding.

It's been like watching a train full of people with the engineer asleep in the cab headed for a cliff while the conductor hands out favors touting the benefits of the trip. You scream Wake Up, Wake Up and Liars,Liars...but no one hears you.

It's been the most frustrating experience of my life..I don't even discuss it with people any more. It's so f******* unbelievable to me that most of our press and public were no better than serta perfect sheep.

There was nothing new in Moyer's program. Those of us who kept our eyes and ears opened the whole time knew this was the case, as it was unfolding.

I have no patience or a speck of sympathy for Senators and Congresscritters who whine about being misled or who think they can get away with 'If I knew then what I know now". Bullshit. If I knew then what you are just getting around to knowing now, where the hell were you, looking at your flag lapel pin in the mirror?

As Kucinich rightfully pointed out, the info was there for the knowing then, not just now.

Why should I trust you to represent me? To lead means to get there first, not when you figure where every one went and run to the head of the parade.

Some in the Press were on the ball, Sy Hersh in particlar, but mostly the Press indiscriminately gobbled up all that cooked up "intelligence" like chocolate covered doo doo.

Why should I buy a newspaper these days? Why should I contribute to any of the "top tier", you should pardon the expression, candidates?

I remember during the Clinton impeachment fiasco how non-plused the Press and Punditry was every time some nasty bit was leaked and Clinton's appproval ratings didn't change. The Press thought we weren't paying attention and that we were wrong.

No, they were wrong. We knew it was a bogus partisan highjacking of our gov't for partisan purposes.

Now they think because we didn't want it then, we don't want impeachment now. Wrong again. Perhaps the major press should all do a "Man In the Street" thing, so they can figure out what the hell is happening.